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NZ farmers frustrated at lack of government action to approve RSE workers

The following Open Letter to the Minister of Immigration has been released by a group of horticultural growers who are frustrated by many months of inaction by the Minister who has failed to announce the “CAP”, which states how many additional RSE workers will be allowed into New Zealand to assist with harvesting early stage crops such as asparagus and strawberries.

The open letter reads as follows:

Dear Minister

We know you are aware of the difficulties that some parts of the horticulture industry are having, trying to harvest their crops with no workforce because Immigration New Zealand will not move quickly enough to approve RSE workers.

We also have just been made aware that you are not prepared to advise when you will be announcing the “CAP” which will give the sector certainty about how many RSE workers will be allowed in for this season.

We can only assume that you are unaware that your failure to announce the CAP will result in the horticulture businesses that harvest in October and November having to leave a large proportion of their crops rotting in the ground AGAIN, as happened last year, when you were late in announcing the CAP.

The undersigned are formally seeking your response to the following questions:

Are you aware that strawberry and asparagus farmers harvest their crops from September and October this year?

Are you aware that it takes weeks or sometimes months to arrange RSE worker travel to NZ to be approved by their home countries?

Are you aware that in response to earlier requests from Immigration New Zealand, many growers have already constructed accommodation blocks which are sitting empty because you are not doing your job?

Do you not care that you are adversely impacting the lives of thousands of NZ workers who are totally dependent on RSE (overseas) workers to harvest crops which New Zealand workers do not want to or are physically unfit to do?

Do you even understand the importance of RSE workers to the thousands of jobs and millions of dollars involved in the early-harvesting horticulture sector?

Do you not care that your failure to announce the CAP in the required timely manner is conducting economic warfare on early-harvesting businesses?

How do you reconcile your failure to even consider the lives of thousands of horticulture workers with your trade union background?

We call on you to act IMMEDIATELY to save the businesses, jobs and livelihood of thousands of New Zealanders.